Lee was born and raised in Cranbrook. Five generations of his family have or do live there; he represents the 4th generation. In his younger years, he was very involved in sports. He was Vice President of Cranbrook Minor Hockey and President & GM of the Cranbrook Royals Hockey Team of the WIHL. Lee spent 25 years in the Automotive, Industrial sector serving the East Kootenay automotive repair shops, dealers, loggers, sawmills and mines. He changed careers and entered the financial services sector with Midland Walwyn (later CIBC). After 18 years Lee retired from being VP, Branch Manager & Investment Advisor of CIBC Wood Gundy. After 16 months of retirement, Lee purchased OK Tire. In Nov. 2014, Lee was elected Mayor of Cranbrook. Lee also sits on the RDEK Board, EK Regional Hospital District Board and the Regional Advisory Committee of the Southern Interior Dev. Initiative Trust.

Amber has worked for the Provincial Government in several facets for the past 11 years and currently leads and coordinates provincial tourism activities and guides strategic policy for tourism. She works closely and collaboratively with other parts of the provincial government and industry stakeholders to identify opportunities and remove policy barriers to tourism growth in BC. A key part of her role is also providing governance oversight for two Crown corporations – Destination BC and BC Pavilion Corporation – both of which play a vital role in advancing government policy priorities and objectives related to tourism and the meetings, conventions and events market.

Amber brings over 15 years of tourism industry experience to her role and has previously held an Associate Faculty role teaching in the Global Tourism Management Program at Royal Roads University. Amber holds a Bachelor of Tourism and Recreation Management Degree from Vancouver Island University and a Master of Arts in Tourism Management from Royal Roads University.

Leah Poulton, Director
Global Content, Destination BC

Leah started her career in tourism in 2011, when she joined Destination BC to launch their Social Media Program. After building a successful program, including the launch of the #exploreBC hashtag, she took on the role of Director, Global Marketing Channels in 2016, building her knowledge of digital marketing and campaign planning. Since 2017, she’s been in the role of Director, Global Content, leading Destination BC’s content, social media, studio and brand teams towards a global, data-driven approach to content marketing.

Her team works closely with KRT and other stakeholders across the region to curate, collaborate and create content in multiple forms for distribution through Destination BC’s global marketing programs. Prior to Destination BC, she held content and social media roles in post-secondary education and sports marketing.

Consulting with business owners in tourism, non-profit, B2B, service, retail, e-commerce and more. Scott speaks at client Annual General Meetings and has held workshop seminars to help small businesses understand digital strategy to grow their business. Navigator Multimedia Inc. has worked with Kootenay Rockies Tourism for over 10 years in website and SEO.

Walt Judas, CEO, Tourism Industry Association of BCBefore joining TIABC, Walt held the position of VP, Marketing Communications, Member Services & Sport for Tourism Vancouver. Most recently, Walt served on over a dozen local committees, including FIFA Women’s World Cup Advisory Committee, the Better Transit and Transportation Coalition, the Vancouver Sport Networks’ Grant Review Committee, the City of Vancouver’s Transportation Advisory Group, and the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association’s Access and Mobility Committee.Walt holds a Bachelor of Hospitality Management Degree from Vancouver Community College and a Diploma in Broadcast Journalism and a Mngmt Certificate in Marketing Communications from BCIT.

Suzanne has offered community tourism planning and facilitation services provincially, nationally and internationally for the past 15 years. Her work in the region has included community tourism strategy facilitation and plan development in a number of destinations. Most recently, working together with Destination BC, KRT and local tourism stakeholders, she facilitated the creation of 10-year destination development strategies for the four planning areas in the Kootenay Rockies. She has worked extensively with Indigenous communities throughout BC to assist in their tourism development efforts including early opportunity identification, training and capacity building and launch of market and export-ready experience offerings.

Complimenting this planning work, Suzanne supports the communities and organizations that she works by identifying both sustainable funding models for tourism development and marketing and by designing effective governance models in support of successful plan implementation and the achievement of measurable results. Prior to establishing Cadence Strategies in 2003, Suzanne was President and CEO of Tourism Whistler where she reinvented the organization and its team. She was recruited to Whistler in 1998 after successfully leading the $200 million expansion of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre as its Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer.

Jody has 12 years experience in several facets of the tourism industry. Over 9 of these years has been at destination marketing organizations, in a destination development capacity, at the community, regional and provincial level in BC. Jody joined the destination development team at Destination BC in 2017. In her current role, she provides project management leadership to support the development of integrated destination development strategies in KR, CCC and VI tourism regions. Before joining Destination BC, Jody held the position of Destination Development Manager with Tourism Richmond, where she developed a business plan for the newly formed destination development unit with the goal of maximizing the economic and social benefits of tourism growth for Richmond.

Prior to this, Jody was the Industry and Community Services Manager at Tourism Vancouver Island, where she worked closely with communities to develop and implement their community tourism master plans through Destination BC’s Community Tourism Foundations Program. Jody is best known for her work on the award winning Tourism Vancouver Island value of tourism communications campaign; Powering Economic Alignment and Growth through Tourism. She has a true passion for empowering communities to develop as sustainable tourism destinations.

Paula is of Hesquiaht and Squamish Nation descent, born and raised in the Nuu-chah-nulth territory on Vancouver Island. She has worked for Indigenous Tourism BC for the past 16 years and is currently the Director of Strategic Partnerships. In this role she works at connecting the opportunities between the Indigenous tourism industry and mainstream tourism.

Paula sat on the steering committee for the groundbreaking Blueprint Strategy for Aboriginal Tourism in British Columbia. The Blueprint was the catalyst for developing Indigenous tourism in BC in 2006. She was also involved with the 2010 Aboriginal Tourism Working Group, in partnership with the 2010 Bid Corporation.

Working out of the Vancouver office of Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark LLP, Natasha practices in all areas of workplace law and provides practical and strategic advice to employers and their management. Natasha regularly represents employers before labour relation boards, human rights tribunals and boards of arbitration. Natasha also advises employers on workplace issues such as employment standards, collective bargaining, workplace investigations, discipline and discharge and employee accommodation.